The Press., 1887-03-31

whereby we must be saved.
 I hope to concede the right of each per- son to his or her personal opinion. claim the privilege of having and main- taining my own, still am quite sure we should judge of man by what true manhood demands. see men, and meet men, and these good in the usual sense, and I say to myself, if these men are to sit in judgment upon me, may as well exclain at once, ''The Lord have mercy upon my soul, for if they censure the world may condemn me; ii they aPpland, I shall surely despise myself. God has placed the standard of manhood in Him. self, or as more directly related to the flesh in Jesus Christ.
 So Mir. Beecher taught. Read his words to young men, read for the most part or his sermons, and he seeks to elevate men, and in the only way-by teaching them to follow our Lord. With this transcendent principle regnant in the soul, his whole nature on fire in the sublimity of his sub- feet, his great nature brimming full of the love of God, manifested in love to men, do you wonder, or at least do you not ex- cuse him, not a little for some of his words touching doctrines, whose goodness ln part is because they are old?
 Let me say, even though in sense It
  take. that think know what believe of some things I guess at, that have not be- ieved and guessed in accord with MT. Beecher's expressed opinions, some of which have done harm but l am meas uring his life precisely as would that of the humblest one in the land. As would in regard to any of your lives -frlends-lt at funeral hour your character-your ln- fluence in the world came before us for consideration. How does the balance tip What the motive ruling? what the gov erning influence of the life? Plain, sim ple. uneventful lives come under the same rule as the greater and more eventfuL But, in the latter case, the mannestauons are much more apparent. Hence, man with great powers, great virtues, may ex- hibit olso elaring faults, but governed by nroner desires these will not be gross.
 As man is lifted toward God the more he becomes filled with the spirit of 8 true manhood. think that to-day religion IS recoonized as an instrument to lift up into this estate as never before. To this result believe Mir. Beecher has contributed as much. if not more, than any other. l do not believe in him as theologlan. think he would have made an excellent professor of practical theology theol- ogy of life. of life in Christ. am not Unitarian. or the son of one. l do not ex- pect to be one, but this much wish to say. while Unitarianism does not increase and spread in proportion to population, but rather in the light of such comparison decreases, and while, too, l think with all due deference to its adherents, among whom are a multitude of choice spirits, its mission has been in part evil, so it has had and has it's mission for good. And this accomplished more outside of it's own com munion than within. Within, some of its parts have. as it seems to me, gone down very low, and yet in another way 1t has sent forth Ieaven of pious culture, of ethical living. a gospel of good works, which orth odoxy has absorbed, willingly and unwit' tingly, and hence it has served to, in g great measure, leaven the whole lump We should be thankful for this, and be truthful enough, and catholic enough tc give due credit for it.
 MT. Beecher in the past has been a sue cessful laborer in the same direction, anc doing so by exalting Christ and not de throning Christ. He has left us, what ever else his unsoundness, living Christ a divine Christ, dweller within the hu man soul, and cognizant of it's deepest wants. I can bear patiently many differ ences of opinion. l sympathize, however with all legitimate reasons and conclusions which widen the gates of salvation bu the one significant truth manifested in thu saying of the angel to Joseph, "Thou shal call his name Jesus, for he shall save hi people from their sins" stands transcend ent in it's beauty over all. This, being properly interpreted, brings the believer into the strictest field of good works; i brings one to seek the best ennoblement o1 life, and with this and these responds te the calls of need and sorrow of mans highest and best spiritual development He who aids successfully in such an ac complishment must be filled with the spir it of it's purpose. He who would walk and talk with his fellow sinners must himself walk and talk with God.
 Just now have been reading an ac count given by gentleman, then ot Eng land, now of our country, of an interview with Dr. Horace Bushnell some 20 years ago, and what he says of him has at least a partial bearing here as touching com munion with God. He writes: "Bush- nell impressed me as man of sublime courage, man of what the old prophets would have called vision. He did not reason out truth like g man inferring that the sun shines because he sees light in his path, but he saw the sun, he saw the truth. I think I never saw man who naO 50 1l6bl0 D0bW60Q Q1u Buu OIlE1Sbs A0 had no more doubt that when he was let loose from this body he would go direct to Christ than little child has when let loose from school that it will go straight home to it's mother" And, he adds, s'I came away from Bushnell saying to my self, There is man who believes in Christ more than he believes in anything or any body.'"
 Such belief evidences Christ within the soul, Christ absorbed in the soul, the soul absorbed in Christ, and from such a soul gospel goes forth conquering thro' captivating, subduing by loves forces, and making alive through imparting Christ like life. Such condition of mind, diff ferently manifested by different minds, is one suitable for work or repose, for life or death. It is the atmosphere in which we should all seek to breathe.
 cannot forbear to allude to MT. Beech er's ideas touching death and the emblems of mourning. would not disturb the heart of sorrow welded to custom. But the christians home when death enters should be filed with joy more than with sadness. As the beautiful floral wreath, a gift to Mrs. B., was placed at the entrance of their house rather than the doleful crape, SO would have it at every chfis- tian1s doorway at such an hour, the em- blern of khe resurrective,a iov instead of a